298089
Nutrition as the Foundation for Good Health: Evaluating the Impact of Food Programs on Health
Methods: The parents of 25 children at BCS agreed to enroll their children in our study. The USDA Food Insecurity Module, completed by parents, was used to ascertain household food insecurity. Child and Adult Care Food Program eligibility was also collected as a secondary measure of food insecurity. Teachers at BCS used the Childhood Behavior Checklist to assess the children’s behavioral problems. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare behavioral problems between the food secure and food insecure groups.
Results: Food insecurity as reported by parents, was consistent with eligibility for state-administered free and reduced lunch programs. Despite the small number of participants (n=25), T-tests identified significant differences (p < .05) between the food secure and food insecure groups for external behavioral problems (43.9 vs. 51.8) and total behavioral problems (41.4 vs. 49.0. However, statistical differences were not seen for internal behavioral problems.
Discussion: Our results indicate that a school nutrition program that provides balanced and healthy meals to every student, may mitigate the increase in internal behavioral problems expected to be observed among children from food insecure families.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsImplementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related education
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the effects of food insecurity on childhood behavior.
Describe how food insecure children would benefit from school nutrition programs.
Identify approaches that could be used in other geographic settings and populations.
Keyword(s): Child Health, Food Security
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I participated in the design, implementation, data collection, analysis, and presentation of this project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.